Channel interference reduction

ABSTRACT

A method for data transmission over first and second media that overlaps in frequency includes computing one or more time division multiple access (TDMA) time-slot channels to be shared between the first and second media for data transmission; allocating one or more time-slot channels to the first medium for data transmission; allocating one or more of the remaining time-slot channels to the second medium for data transmission; and instructing transceivers for the first and second media to communicate only in their allocated time-slot channels.

BACKGROUND

The invention relates to minimizing RF channel interence.

The number of products incorporating the recently approved Bluetoothwireless standard is expected to explode during the first couple yearsof the new millennium. Bluetooth, which establishes wireless connectionsbetween devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, and headsets, operates atrelatively low data rates over short distances using very little power.On the other hand, IEEE 802.11 is a wireless LAN standard approved byIEEE a couple years ago and operates at higher data rates over longerdistances using more power. Companies today are strongly benefiting fromusing 802.11-compliant wireless LANs to support efficient mobilecommunications between handheld data collectors and corporate ISdatabases.

Because of a high demand for both wireless PANs and LANs, it's importantthat Bluetooth and 802.11 coexist in close proximity. A current problem,though, is that the two standards operate in the same 2.4 GHz unlicensedradio band and equally use frequency hopping modulation. Thiscommonality poses a strong potential for radio frequency interference.

Interference happens when Bluetooth and 802.11 devices transmit at thesame time near each other. This causes a destruction of data bits,prompting the system to retransmit entire data packets. A wireless LANnode (like Bluetooth or 802.11) that works on a principle of carriersensing will not transmit when it senses other stations transmitting. Ifplaced in close proximity to 802.11-based wireless LANs, Bluetooth couldcause interference. Modern LANs keep working despite such interference,but performance can suffer. Much design effort in Bluetooth—includinglimits on physical range and use of spread-spectrum frequencyhopping—went toward avoiding conflict with other transmission schemes.

The likelihood is that Bluetooth products will likely jam the operationof 802.11, not the other way around. The reason is that Bluetooth hopsthrough frequencies 600 times faster than 802.11. While an 802.11 deviceis transmitting on a particular frequency, a nearby Bluetooth productwill most likely interfere with the 802.11 transmission many timesbefore the 802.11 device hops to the next frequency. This barrage ofradio signals emanating from Bluetooth products could seriously degradethe operation of an 802.11 network.

Additionally, other wireless products such as GPS can also causeinterference. Bluetooth works in the 2.4-GHz range of the radio band,which is not licensed by the FCC and is inhabited by cell phones, babymonitors and the IEEE 802.11 LAN. With multiple independently operatedradio frequency systems, potential problems arise, includingself-jamming, inter-modulation products, increased shieldingrequirements, tight filtering requirements, among others. For example,the Bluetooth band is around 2.4 Ghz. One of the cellular bands isaround 900 Mhz. In many Bluetooth transmitters, the waveform ismodulated at 1.2 GHz and multiplied by two to get to 2.4 GHz band.Additionally, a number of wireless transceivers use local oscillatorsthat are at around 1 to 1.1 GHz to give an intermediate frequency (IF)of about 100–200 MHz The RF frequency is thus about 1.2 GHz. Hence, whenBluetooth and wireless transceivers operate simultaneously, potential RFinterference problems exist.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, a method for data transmission over first and secondmedia that overlap in frequency includes computing one or more timedivision multiple access (TDMA) time-slot channels to be shared betweenthe first and second media for data transmission; allocating one or moretime-slot channels to the first medium for data transmission; allocatingone or more of the remaining time-slot channels to the second medium fordata transmission; and instructing transceivers for the first and secondmedia to communicate only in their allocated time-slot channels.

Implementations of the above aspect may include one or more of thefollowing. One of the medium conforms to an 802.11 specification, whilethe other medium conforms to a Bluetooth specification. The first andsecond media operate at approximately 2.4 gigahertz. The system can also(a) determine a desired level of service for one of the media during atransmission; and (b) dynamically adjust a number of time slots assignedto the media during the transmission to remain within limits of saiddesired level of service. The dynamic adjusting can further includedetermining available time-slot resources; detecting the medium thatfails to meet said desired level of service; allocating the medium to aconfiguration having additional time slots; and transmitting anadditional channel assignment message including information on theallocated configuration with the additional time slots. The transceiversfor the first and second media can be instructed to communicate only intheir newly allocated time-slots. In a second aspect, a method for datatransmission over first and second media that overlap in frequencyincludes selecting one of the first and second media as a common medium;and routing the data transmission through the common medium.

In yet a third aspect, a method for data transmission over first andsecond media that overlap in frequency includes selecting one of thefirst and second media as a common medium; and instructing transceiversfor the first and second media to communicate only through the commonmedium.

Implementations of the above aspect may include one or more of thefollowing. The method includes communicating on a short-range radiochannel, wherein the short-range radio channel is Bluetooth or IEEE802.11 (also known as Wireless Local Area Network or WLAN). The methodcan bond the short-range radio channel along with several cellularfrequency channels to increase bandwidth. The cellular channels canconsist of an uplink band around 890–915 MHz and a downlink band around935–960 MHz. The method can bond two adjacent channels. Each band can bedivided into 124 pairs of frequency duplex channels with 200 kHz carrierspacing using Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA). Another method,Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) can split the 200 kHz radio channelinto a plurality of time slots; bonding the time slots; and transmittingand receiving data in the bonded time slots. Cellular packet data can betransmitted in accordance with the following protocols: cellular digitalpacket data (CDPD) (for AMPS, IS-95, and IS-136), General Packet RadioService (GPRS) and EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution).

Advantages of the system may include one or more of the following. Thesystem allows an end-user of a mobile wireless device, such as a mobilephone or portable computer, to minimize interference and thus totransmit messages and information quickly over wireless channels. Thisis achieved by time-division multiplexing potentially interferingtransmissions Transmission failure is minimized to effectively increaseusable bandwidth so that content rich messages such as multimedia andvideo files may be transmitted quickly. The system transmits data athigh effective data rates and that alleviates latencies concomitant withthe time domain data overlay systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part ofthis specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and,together with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention

FIG. 1A shows a process to wirelessly communicate data over a pluralityof media that overlap in frequency.

FIG. 1B shows a process to wirelessly communicate data over a pluralityof media that overlap in frequency.

FIG. 1C shows a third process to wirelessly communicate data over aplurality of media that overlap in frequency.

FIG. 1D shows an exemplary process for bonding channels.

FIG. 1E further illustrates exemplary data transmission using bondedchannels.

FIG. 2A shows a block diagram of a multi-mode wireless communicatordevice fabricated on a single silicon integrated chip.

FIG. 2B shows an exemplary second process to bond cellular channels and802.11 and Bluetooth channels together to further increase transmissionspeed for the system of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a wireless communications system.

FIGS. 1A and 1B show processes that support wireless data communicationover a plurality of transmission media that overlap each other infrequency. In one embodiment, the transmission media include Bluetoothand 802.11b media, both of which operate in the 2.4 GHz unlicensed radiofrequency band. In one embodiment, a process 10 applies a TDMA processwhere each transmitter communicates in accordance with agreed upon timeslot. In this embodiment, a system with Bluetooth transceivers and802.11 transceivers can transmit data over Bluetooth and 802.11 (firstand second) media that overlap, in this case at the 2.4 GHz frequencyband. The process 10 computes one or more time division multiple access(TDMA) time-slot channels to be shared between the first and secondmedia for data transmission (step 12). Next, the process 10 allocatesone or more time-slot channels to the first medium for data transmission(step 14). The process 10 then allocates one or more of the remainingtime-slot channels to the second medium for data transmission (step 16).The process instructs transceivers for the first and second media tocommunicate only in their allocated time-slot channels (step 18).

DESCRIPTION

To adjust for quality of service, the process 10 can determine a desiredlevel of service for one of the media during a transmission, anddynamically adjust a number of time slots assigned to the media duringthe transmission to remain within limits of said desired level ofservice. The dynamic adjusting can further include determining availabletime-slot resources; detecting the medium that fails to meet saiddesired level of service; allocating the medium to a configurationhaving a additional time slots, and transmitting an additional channelassignment message including information on the allocated configurationwith the additional time slots. The transceivers for the first andsecond media can be instructed to communicate only in their newlyallocated time-slots.

FIG. 1B shows a second embodiment, shown as a process 30, to handle datatransmission over first and second media that overlap in frequency. Theprocess 30 selects one of the first and second media as a common medium(step 32) and routes the data transmission through the common medium(step 34).

In the second embodiment of FIG. 1B, one standard is selected as thedefault communication medium. For example, if 801.11 standard were thestandard medium, Bluetooth data is encoded into 802.11 data andtransmitted using the 802.11 transceiver, and vice versa. As such, theprocess 30 is equivalent to two 802.11 transceivers operating over the2.4 GHz band without interference.

Turning now to FIG. 1C, a third process 70 for data transmission overfirst and second media that overlaps in frequency is shown. The process70 selects one of the first and second media as a common medium (step72) and instructs transceivers for the first and second media tocommunicate only through the common medium (step 74).

The processes 10, 30 and 70 can further allow a single mobile station totransmit on multiple cellular frequency channels that have been “bonded”or linked together for the purpose of the transmission. Each channelcontains one or more frames, and a single mobile station can transmit onmultiple time slots of the same TDMA frame (multi-slot operation). Thisresults in a very flexible channel allocation: one to one hundred twentyfour (124) frequency channels (or one to 62 channels for 200 kHz channelspacing interleaved systems), with one to eight time slots per TDMAframe can be allocated for one mobile station. Moreover, uplink anddownlink are allocated separately, which efficiently supports asymmetricdata traffic (e.g., Web browsing).

First, the process of FIG. 1D receives a request to communicate one ormore files with a data transmission size (step 102). Based on thetransmission size and known channel bandwidth, the process computes thenumber of frequency channels that are needed (step 104). Next, theprocess requests an allocation of cellular frequency channels from amobile station to a base station (step 106). In response, the basestation looks up available (open) frequency channels in its memorystorage and allocates available frequency channels in response to therequest from the mobile station (step 108). Information on the allocatedchannels is sent to the mobile station to set up its transceiver tocapture data on all allocated channels (step 120). The information caninclude a list with channel identification or channel frequency, oralternatively can include a starting channel and channel spacing, or caninclude a starting channel and frequency hopping information, forexample.

Once the mobile station sends an acknowledgement that it has set up itsRF circuitry to receive data over a plurality of frequency channels, thebase station can transmit data over the plurality of frequency channels(step 124). In this manner, the allocated frequency channels are bondedtogether to communicate data with high bandwidth. Upon conclusion ofdata transmission, the mobile station sends a deallocation request tothe base station (step 126), and the base station in turn releases thedeallocated channels for other transmissions or for supportingadditional users (step 130).

FIG. 1E further illustrates exemplary data transmission using bondedchannels In the embodiment of FIG. 1E, the mobile station contains onetransmitter/receiver pair that transmits on an uplink band around890–915 MHz for the uplink (direction from mobile station to basestation) and receives on a downlink band around 935–960 MHz for thedownlink (direction from base station to mobile station). The 25 MHzbands are then divided into 124 pairs of frequency duplex channels with200 kHz carrier spacing using Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA).A cell can use two adjacent channels, and the channel spacing can besaid to be 200 kHz interleaved. TDMA is used to split the 200 kHz radiochannel into 8 time slots (which creates 8 logical channels) A logicalchannel is therefore defined by its frequency and the TDMA frame timeslot number.

In one exemplary sequence in the embodiment of FIG. 1E, the mobilestation requests two channels, and in this example, channels 50 and 52in FIG. 1E at 890.2 MHz and 890.4 MHz are available. The base stationresponds by sending the 890.2 and 890.4 MHz frequency identification tothe mobile station. The mobile station in turn updates its transceiverwith the frequency information, and the transceiver can listen for datain all frames associated with the 890.2 and 890.4 MHz channels. In thisexample, two frequency channels have been bonded together to increasetransmission bandwidth.

Although the above example illustrates a static allocation, theallocation of channels can be performed dynamically, depending on thecurrent traffic load, the priority of the service, and the multi-slotclass A load supervision procedure monitors the transmission load ineach cell. According to the current demand, the number of channels canbe changed. Channels not currently in use by conventional GSM/GPRS/EDGEcan be allocated to increase the quality of service. When there is aresource demand for services with higher priority, channels can bede-allocated. Hence, channels are only allocated when data packets aresent or received, and they are released after the transmission. Forbursty traffic this results in an efficient usage of wireless resourcesand multiple users can share a group of channels to obtain the necessarybandwidth.

FIG. 2A shows a block diagram of a multi-mode wireless communicatordevice 100 fabricated on a single silicon integrated chip. In oneimplementation, the device 100 is an integrated CMOS device with radiofrequency (RF) circuits, including a cellular radio core 110, aplurality of short-range wireless transceiver cores 130 that can includeBluetooth cores and 802.11 cores, and a sniffer 111, along side digitalcircuits, including a reconfigurable processor core 150, a high-densitymemory array core 170, and a router 190. The high-density memory arraycore 170 can include various memory technologies such as flash memoryand dynamic random access memory (DRAM), among others, on differentportions of the memory array core.

The reconfigurable processor core 150 can include one or more processors151 such as MIPS processors and/or one or more digital signal processors(DSPs) 153, among others. The reconfigurable processor core 150 has abank of efficient processors 151 and a bank of DSPs 153 with embeddedfunctions. These processors 151 and 153 can be configured to operateoptimally on specific problems and can include buffers on the receivingend and buffers on the transmitting end such the buffers shown inFIG. 1. For example, the bank of DSPs 153 can be optimized to handlediscrete cosine transforms (DCTs) or Viterbi encodings, among others.Additionally, dedicated hardware 155 can be provided to handle specificalgorithms in silicon more efficiently than the programmable processors151 and 153. The number of active processors is controlled depending onthe application, so that power is not used when it is not needed. Thisembodiment does not rely on complex clock control methods to conservepower, since the individual clocks are not run at high speed, but ratherthe unused processor is simply turned off when not needed.

Through the router 190, the multi-mode wireless communicator device 100can detect and communicate with any wireless system it encounters at agiven frequency. The router 190 performs the switch in real time throughan engine that keeps track of the addresses of where the packets aregoing. The router 190 can send packets in parallel through two or moreseparate pathways. For example, if a Bluetooth™ connection isestablished, the router 190 knows which address it is looking at andwill be able to immediately route packets using another connectionstandard. In doing this operation, the router 190 working with the RFsniffer 111 periodically scans its radio environment (‘ping’) to decideon optimal transmission medium. The router 190 can send some packets inparallel through both the primary and secondary communication channel tomake sure some of the packets arrive at their destinations.

The reconfigurable processor core 150 controls the cellular radio core110 and the short-range wireless transceiver cores 130 to provide aseamless dual-mode network integrated circuit that operates with aplurality of distinct and unrelated communications standards andprotocols such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), GeneralPacket Radio Service (GPRS), Enhance Data Rates for GSM Evolution (Edge)and Bluetooth™. The cell phone core 110 provides wide area network (WAN)access, while the short-range wireless transceiver cores 130 supportlocal area network (LAN) access. The reconfigurable processor core 150has embedded read-only-memory (ROM) containing software such asIEEE802.11, GSM, GPRS, Edge, and/or Bluetooth™ protocol software, amongothers.

In one embodiment, the cellular radio core 110 includes atransmitter/receiver section that is connected to an off-chip antenna.The transmitter/receiver section is a direct conversion radio thatincludes an I/Q demodulator, transmit/receive oscillator/clockgenerator, multi-band power amplifier (PA) and PA control circuit, andvoltage-controlled oscillators and synthesizers. In another embodimentof transmitter/receiver section 112, intermediate frequency (IF) stagesare used. In this embodiment, during cellular reception, thetransmitter/receiver section converts received signals into a firstintermediate frequency (IF) by mixing the received signals with asynthesized local oscillator frequency and then translates the first IFsignal to a second IF signal. The second IF signal is hard-limited andprocessed to extract an RSSI signal proportional to the logarithm of theamplitude of the second IF signal. The hard-limited IF signal isprocessed to extract numerical values related to the instantaneoussignal phase, which are then combined with the RSSI signal.

For voice reception, the combined signals are processed by the processorcore 150 to form PCM voice samples that are subsequently converted intoan analog signal and provided to an external speaker or earphone. Fordata reception, the processor simply transfers the data over aninput/output (I/O) port. During voice transmission, an off-chipmicrophone captures analog voice signals, digitizes the signal, andprovides the digitized signal to the processor core 150. The processorcore 150 codes the signal and reduces the bit-rate for transmission. Theprocessor core 150 converts the reduced bit-rate signals to modulatedsignals such as I,I,Q,Q modulating signals, for example. During datatransmission, the data is modulated and the modulated signals are thenfed to the cellular telephone transmitter of the transmitter/receiversection.

Turning now to the short-range wireless transceiver core 130, theshort-range wireless transceiver core 130 contains a radio frequency(RF) modem core 132 that communicates with a link controller core 134The processor core 150 controls the link controller core 134. In oneembodiment, the RF modem core 132 has a direct-conversion radioarchitecture with integrated VCO and frequency synthesizer. The RF-unit132 includes an RE receiver connected to an analog-digital converter(ADC), which in turn is connected to a modem performing digitalmodulation, channel filtering, AFC, symbol timing recovery, and bitslicing operations For transmission, the modem is connected to a digitalto analog converter (DAC) that in turn drives an RF transmitter.

The link controller core 134 provides link control function and can beimplemented in hardware or in firmware. One embodiment of the core 134is compliant with the Bluetooth™ specification and processes Bluetooth™packet types. For header creation, the link controller core 134 performsa header error check, scrambles the header to randomize the data and tominimize DC bias, and performs forward error correction (FEC) encodingto reduce the chances of getting corrupted information. The payload ispassed through a cyclic redundancy check (CRC), encrypted/scrambled andFEC-encoded. The FEC encoded data is then inserted into the header

In one exemplary operating sequence, a user is in his or her office andbrowses a web site on a portable computer through a wired local areanetwork cable such as an Ethernet cable. Then the user walks to a nearbycubicle. As the user disconnects, the device 100 initiates a short-rangeconnection using a Bluetooth™ connection. When the user drives from hisor her office to an off-site meeting, the Bluetooth™ connection isreplaced with cellular telephone connection. Thus, the device 100enables easy synchronization and mobility during a cordless connection,and open up possibilities for establishing quick, temporary (ad-hoc)connections with colleagues, friends, or office networks. Appliancesusing the device 100 are easy to use since they can be set toautomatically find and contact each other when within range.

When the multi-mode wireless communicator device 100 is in the cellulartelephone connection mode, the short-range wireless transceiver cores130 are powered down to save power. Unused sections of the chip are alsopowered down to save power. Many other battery-power saving features areincorporated, and in particular, the cellular radio core 110 when in thestandby mode can be powered down for most of the time and only wake upat predetermined instances to read messages transmitted by cellulartelephone base stations in the radio's allocated paging time slot.

When the user arrives at the destination, according to oneimplementation, the cellular radio core 110 uses idle time between itswaking periods to activate the short-range wireless transceiver cores130 to search for a Bluetooth™ channel or an 802.11 signal, for example.If Bluetooth™ signals are detected, the phone sends a de-registrationmessage to the cellular system and/or a registration message to theBluetooth™ system. Upon deregistration from the cellular system, thecellular radio core 110 is turned off or put into a deep sleep mode withperiodic pinging and the short-range wireless transceiver core 130 andrelevant parts of the synthesizer are powered up to listen to theBluetooth™ or the 802.11 channel.

According to one implementation, when the short-range wireless core 130in the idle mode detects that the short-range signals such as the 802.11and/or Bluetooth™ signals have dropped in strength, the device 100activates the cellular radio core 110 to establish a cellular link,using information from the latest periodic ping. If a cellularconnection is established and 802.11 and/or Bluetooth™ signals are weak,the device 100 sends a deregistration message to the 802.11 and/orBluetooth™ system and/or a registration message to the cellular system.Upon registration from the cellular system, the short-range transceivercores 130 is turned off or put into a deep sleep mode and the cellularradio core 110 and relevant parts of the synthesizer are powered up tolisten to the cellular channel.

The router 190 can send packets in parallel through the separatepathways of cellular or 802.11 and/or Bluetooth™. For example, if aBluetooth™ connection is established, the router 190 knows which addressit is looking at and will be able to immediately route packets using theBluetooth standard Similarly, if the 802 11 connection is established,the router 190 uses this connection standard. In doing this operation,the router 190 pings its environment to decide on optimal transmissionmedium. If the signal reception is poor for both pathways, the router190 can send some packets in parallel through both the primary andsecondary communication channel (cellular and/or Bluetooth™) to makesure some of the packets arrive at their destinations. However, if thesignal strength is adequate, the router 190 prefers the 802.11 and/orBluetooth™ mode to minimize the number of subscribers using thecapacity-limited and more expensive cellular system at any give time.Only a small percentage of the devices 100, those that are temporarilyoutside the 802.11 and/or Bluetooth coverage, represents a potentialload on the capacity of the cellular system, so that the number ofmobile users can be many times greater than the capacity of the cellularsystem alone could support.

FIG. 2B shows an exemplary second process 210 to bond cellular channelsand 802.11 and/or Bluetooth channels together to further increasetransmission speed. The process 210 receives a request to communicateone or more files with a data transmission size (step 212). Based on thetransmission size and known cellular and 802.11 and/or Bluetooth channelbandwidth, the process 210 computes the number of frequency channelsthat are needed (step 214). Next, the process 210 requests an allocationof cellular frequency channels from a mobile station to a base station(step 216). In response, the base station looks up available (open)frequency channels in its memory storage and allocates availablefrequency channels in response to the request from the mobile station(step 218). Information on the allocated channels is sent to the mobilestation to set up its transceiver to capture data on all allocatedchannels (step 220). Once the mobile station sends an acknowledgementthat it has set up its RF circuitry to receive data over a plurality offrequency channels, the base station can transmit data over theplurality of frequency channels and the 802.11 and/or Bluetooth channel(step 224). In this manner, the allocated frequency channels are bondedtogether to communicate data with high bandwidth using a plurality oflong-range and short-range wireless channels. Upon conclusion of datatransmission, the mobile station sends a deallocation request to thebase station (step 326), and turns off the 802.11 and/or Bluetoothchannel (step 328). The base station in turn releases the deallocatedchannels for other transmissions (step 330).

FIG. 3 shows a cellular switching system 410. The system 410 has one ormore Mobile Stations (MS) 412 that can transmit and receive dataon-demand using a plurality of channels bonded together. The system 410also has a Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 414, a Network and SwitchingSubsystem (NSS), and an Operation and Support Subsystem (OSS). The BSS414 connects the MS 412 and the NSS and is in charge of the transmissionand reception. The BSS 414 includes a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) orBase Station 420 and a Base Station Controller (BSC) 422.

Although specific embodiments of the present invention have beenillustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in the foregoingdetailed description, it will be understood that the invention is notlimited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capableof numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention. For example, althoughexemplary embodiments using Bluetooth, 802.11, GSM, GPRS, and EDGE arecontemplated, the invention is applicable to other forms of datatransmission, include radio-based and optical-based transmissiontechniques.

1. A method for data transmission over first and second media thatoverlap in frequency, comprising: computing one or more time divisionmultiple access (TDMA) time-slot channels to be shared between the firstand second media for data transmission; allocating one or more time-slotchannels to the first medium for data transmission; allocating one ormore of the remaining time-slot channels to the second medium for datatransmission; and dynamically adjusting a number of time-slot channelsassigned to one of the first and second media during the datatransmission to remain within limits of a desired level of service. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and secondmedia conforms to an 802.11 specification.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein at least one of the first and second media conforms to aBluetooth specification.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining the desired level of service for one of the first and secondmedia during the data transmission.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe dynamic adjusting comprises: determining available time-slotresources; detecting the medium that fails to meet said desired level ofservice; allocating the medium to a configuration having additional timeslots; and transmitting a channel assignment message includinginformation on the allocated configuration with the additional timeslots.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising instructingtransceivers for the first and second media to communicate only in theirpreviously presentedly allocated time-slots.
 7. A method for datatransmission over first and second media that overlap in frequency,comprising: selecting one of the first and second media as a commonmedium; instructing transceivers for the first and second media tocommunicate only through the common medium; and retrying a packettransmitted through the common medium at a lower rate if the packet isnot acknowledged after transmission at a first rate.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, wherein at least one of the first and second media conforms toan 802.11 specification.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein at least oneof the first and second media conforms to a Bluetooth specification. 10.The method of claim 7, wherein the packet is initially transmitted atthe highest rate supported by both media.
 11. An apparatus comprising: aprocessor; a first transceiver coupled to the processor to communicatevia a first medium; a second transceiver coupled to the processor tocommunicate via a second medium, wherein at least one of the firsttransceiver and the second transceiver is to retry transmission of apacket at a lower rate if a prior transmission of the packet is notacknowledged; and a circuit to dynamically allocate time-slot channelsto one of the first medium and the second medium based upon a desiredlevel of service.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processorcomprises an integrated circuit having a reconfigurable processor corethat includes a plurality of digital signal processors (DSPs).
 13. Theapparatus of claim 12, wherein the integrated circuit further comprisesa router coupled to the reconfigurable processor core.
 14. The apparatusof claim 13, wherein the router is configured to bond a plurality ofcellular frequency channels and at least one short-range wirelesschannel.
 15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the circuit is to selectone of the first medium and the second medium as a common medium fordata transmission.
 16. The method of claim 1, further comprisinginstructing transceivers for the first and second media to communicateonly in their allocated time-slot channels.